Stowed away on cargo ships and unsure where their dangerous journeys will take them, increasing numbers of African immigrants are arriving in Latin America as European countries tighten border controls.

The Hutu militia FDLR is responsible for much of the violence in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where murder, massacres, rape and kidnapping are widespread. The FDLR's leaders have lived untouched in Germany for years. Now the authorities have reacted -- far too late.

UNICEF has said that more than 43,000 children work in mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The UN agency made this known in a statement it issued ahead of the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Children's Rights.

Sudanese women have called on the African human rights system to assist them reform the repressive laws back home in Sudan. In a paper they presented at the 46th ordinary session of the African Commission on Human and people's Rights in Banjul, the Gambia, a group of Sudanese human rights activists called for an urgent reform of the public order regime in Sudan.

World leaders who convened in Rome, Italy, for the World Summit on Food Security have unanimously adopted a declaration pledging renewed commitment to eradicate hunger at the earliest date, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Countries also agreed to work to reverse the decline in domestic and international funding for agriculture and promote new investment in the sector.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has launched a public broadcasting report on issues surrounding the sector in the country. The report is based on a survey entitled “Public Broadcasting In Africa Series” commissioned by Africa Governance Monitoring and Advocacy Project(AFRIMAP), Open Society Initiative Southern Africa(OSISA), Open Society Institute Media Programme(OSIMP) and MISA-Zimbabwe.

The African Union Panel of the Wise held its seventh meeting at the African Union Commission in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 9 and 10 November 2009 under the chairmanship of Ahmed Ben Bella.

Reported cases of kala azar infection, a deadly disease also known as visceral leishmaniasis, have continued to rise in Southern Sudan, according to medical workers. "We are clearly in the midst of a kala azar epidemic," Jill Seaman, working in the Old Fangak clinic in Jonglei State, run by the Sudan Medical Relief organization, said.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has been feeding people in Lesotho since 1965, yet the tiny mountain kingdom is still not much closer to achieving food self-sufficiency. Time to overhaul the approach, aid agencies say. WFP generally only ships and provides food in crisis situations like civil conflicts and natural disasters. Programmes sometimes linger on after the emergency has passed, when food aid used is to help communities rebuild, but the goal is usually to move out.

Some 20,000 people wounded in Sierra Leone's war are receiving micro-grants as part of efforts to rebuild lives and livelihoods in the still fragile country. The initial grants of 300,000 leones (US$80) each are part of a government "reparations" programme, implemented by the National Commission for Social Action (NaCSA).

Three years after the Kenyan government began to promote emergency contraception as part of its family planning strategy, the “morning-after pill” remains as controversial as ever: critics argue that unless the public is better educated about its purpose, it risks undermining the messages of abstinence and protected sex, putting impressionable young people at risk of HIV.

High school students in the Niger capital, Niamey, learned to put HIV/AIDS and reproductive health in a broader context during a recent essay contest. "In preparing my essay I learned that AIDS is not a death sentence," said one female student who requested anonymity. "This kind of exercise should be encouraged because it allows students to increase their knowledge of AIDS and its consequences."

James Donkor, a journalist working with community radio station Radio Progress, in Wa, the capital of Ghana's Upper West region, was reportedly assaulted on 24 October 2009 and briefly detained by two policemen in the area. The journalist, who had photographed a man the policemen had allegedly tied to an electric pole, was accused of "disrespecting" the police officers.

Even when Guinea is not facing political crisis and reeling from a massacre, daily life is gruelling for many and instability is never far away. In this country that holds 30 percent of the world’s reserves of bauxite, the primary ore in aluminium, most people live hand-to-mouth; only about 19 percent of the population have access to proper sanitation facilities; malnutrition is widespread.

October has been a month characterised by violence, lawlessness, corruption and the complete abuse of power for partisan and personal objectives. Despite Robert Mugabe’s outrageous claim to the contrary, Sokwanele has logged an incredible 3850 breaches of the GPA by Zanu PF since the start of the ZIG Watch project, making this party responsible for 88.8% of all breaches logged up until the end of October.

According to this September 2008 document from USAID entitled "Addressing Gender-Based Violence Through USAID's Health Programs: A Guide for Health Sector Program Officers", research demonstrates that gender-based violence has implications for almost every aspect of health policy and programming, from primary care to reproductive health programmes, because it not only results in injury and death of its victims, but also it can contribute to the spread of HIV. Reducing violence and coercion is among five high-priority gender strategies of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

The Nelson Mandela Foundation and its sister charities are pleased with the United Nations General Assembly’s declaration of July 18, Nelson Mandela’s birthday, as “Nelson Mandela International Day”, an international day of activism.

It is the ninth time the Global Fund Board approved new proposals to support programs fighting the three diseases. The total two-year value of the programs recommended for funding was US$2.4 billion; the second largest ever approved by the Global Fund, following a US$2.75 billion round in 2008. The Global Fund has now approved a total funding of US$18.4 billion for 144 countries since it was created in 2002.

On the 8 October, seven prominent Sahrawi human rights advocates were arrested at Mohamed V airport in Casablanca, Morocco. They were driven away by Moroccan security forces immediately after disembarking from a flight returning from Algeria where they had been visiting the Sahrawi refugee camps between 26 September and 8 October.

A crony of the newly-elected Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba, has been forced to resign from the government due to a magazine report that links him to a financial scandal. Mr Jean Pierra Oyiba who is President Ali Bongo Ondimba’s Chief of Protocol, resigned but has denied links with the scandal that was reported this week by the Paris-based Jeune Afrique magazine.